This year the Grammys surprised everyone by giving an enormous gift to jazz fans. Esperanza Spalding, whom we’ve praised before, won a Grammy for Best New Artist - and she is the first jazz artist ever to do so. "I really didn't think it was going to be me," Spalding said after her win. "I was one of those [surprised] people. ... It was so unexpected, that's the truth. I'm grateful to all my people in my big musical family that have given me so much support and help over the years,"
Since she won out over the incomprehensibly popular Justin Bieber, we are delighted at the result.
The 26-year-old Portland, Oregon, native really is an artist, not a media-hyped pop fad. This year musicianship and creativity won out over PR and marketing. Both in the studio and in interviews, she is gracious with her musicians, focusing the attention on the art of creating music, not on herself. She taught herself to play the violin at age 5 and played with the Chamber Music Society of Oregon. She played guitar, oboe and cello before settling on the bass as a teenager. Graduating from Berklee College of Music on scholarships, she released her first recording, Chamber Music Society, and became discussed in jazz circles (we reviewed her album on this blog). Now, with the Grammy, millions more are discovering her music and we hope that it motivates her to greater musical experiments. 
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